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Former Illinois state Rep. Susan Catania championed the federal Equal Rights Amendment and worked to advance the rights of women, people of color, the LGBTQ community and other marginalized communities.
“She was a trailblazer, and she broke glass ceilings every time she had a chance,” said former state House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago, a former colleague in the state legislature.
Catania, 81, died in her Eagle River, Wisconsin, home on Nov. 27 from injuries suffered after a fire broke out in her home, said her daughter Sara. She had retired to Eagle River after previously living for many years in the South Side Douglas neighborhood.
Born Susan Kmetty in Chicago, Catania grew up in the South Side Beverly neighborhood and graduated from Mother McAuley High School. After earning a bachelor’s degree from Saint Xavier College in 1962, Catania was a teaching assistant at Northwestern University for about a year.
In 1963, Catania then took a job as information director, technical writer and publicist at Walter C. McCrone Associates, a microscopy consulting firm on the South Side. She left that job at the end of 1970 after she was not given a promotion that she believed she was in line to receive. The following year, she made the first claim in Illinois history by a woman for unemployment compensation based on alleged sex discrimination, contending that the company instead had hired a man and paid him twice her salary.
During her battles with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over the alleged sex discrimination and over being denied dependents benefits for her children, Catania connected with the National Organization for Women. The group sought women to testify for a bill that would eliminate a law denying unemployment benefits to pregnant women, and Catania went to Springfield to testify.
That convinced Catania that “we needed a lot more serious, hardworking women in the legislature,” she told the Tribune’s Ann Marie Lipinski in 1982.
So in 1972, Catania, by then working as a freelance technical publications consultant, decided to run for state representative in the state’s largely Black 22nd District. Promising to halt pollution, protect consumers, upgrade public schools, encourage small businesses, reform inner-city practices of some insurance companies and end racial or sex discrimination, Catania ran a vigorous campaign. She told the Tribune in 1972 that her philosophy was, “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. Then change the system.”
Catania won election to one of three House seats in the 22nd District in 1972. Shortly before the election, Catania told the Tribune that she had considered “whether or not I could effectively represent a district that is more Black than white, and I decided I could. In the primary and now I have had an amazingly encouraging response. People say, ‘We don’t care if you are Black or white. You seem willing to represent us.’”
While in the legislature, Catania took on a variety of causes and saw more than 50 of her bills passed into law. Some of her victories included revising the state’s public aid code, passing emergency state aid for Cook County and Provident Hospitals, income tax reform and a compensation plan for crime victims. Other efforts stalled, including legislation relating to gun control.
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In still other areas, Catania appeared significantly ahead of her time. She introduced gay rights legislation and sponsored a first pass at a Freedom of Information Act. While neither initiative was successful, other legislators later resurrected and enacted versions of them.
“She was very much a leader on women’s issues, on such things as domestic violence, sexual abuse and employment discrimination,” said former state Rep. and former state appellate Justice Judy Koehler, who served alongside Catania in the House. “We had a very good relationship.”
David Daniels, who worked on Catania’s first campaign, called her “an icon of icons.”
“She was a fighter — she was tough as titanium,” he said. “She is one of the most important figures in women’s politics and the women’s movement. She just blew people away. It shows you the kind of person that she was.”
Catania had four daughters when she was elected to the legislature, and three more were born while she was in office. As a lawmaker, she drew attention for bringing her newborn babies onto the floor of the state House and nursing them out of public view in an adjacent restroom.
“I had just been elected when my fifth daughter was born,” she told the Tribune in 1975. “I had nursed all the others and didn’t want to miss out with Amy. Luckily, the next desk was empty, so I brought an old car bed I had used for the other children, put Amy in it, and simply slid her under the desk. Fortunately, the building was remodeled before Amy was born, and the first ladies’ lounge was installed outside the door of the House. With a loudspeaker in the ceiling, I never missed a minute of floor debate.”
In 1975, Catania was appointed chair of the Illinois Commission on the Status of Women, a 16-member panel whose members were appointed by Republican and Democratic leaders. Catania worked to help shape the commission into a focal point for women’s issues, including support of what ultimately became her signature issue, the federal Equal Rights Amendment.
The House repeatedly failed to pass that amendment during Catania’s time in the chamber, despite her vigorous support for the amendment. The state legislature finally approved the amendment in 2018.
“She was … without question the most active person in the legislature who was a Republican for the Equal Rights Amendment,” recalled Virginia-based feminist leader Eleanor Smeal, the president and co-founder of the Feminist Majority Foundation. “She was very easy to work with and very dedicated to the cause of equality for women.”
“She liked the ability to have an impact, make positive change in the world, right wrongs and amplify the voices of constituents who were not otherwise being heard,” Sara Catania said.
In 1982, Catania decided to leave the legislature to run for lieutenant governor in a crowded GOP primary that drew scant voter interest. Then-Illinois House Speaker George Ryan, R-Kankakee, handily defeated Catania and state Sen. Donald Totten, R-Hoffman Estates, in the March 1982 GOP primary for lieutenant governor.
Catania also decided to leave the House because the state ended the cumulative voting system, which had enabled one person from the minority party in each legislative district to win a seat. Once that system ended, Catania no longer was able to win a seat in her district as a Republican.
After leaving the House at the end of 1982, Catania served as a fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, where she lectured, led seminars and joined a rowing crew team, regularly rowing on the Charles River.
Catania soon returned to Chicago still interested in politics, and she gained national attention as the only delegate to the 1984 Republican convention to vote against President Ronald Reagan’s renomination. She then ran unsuccessfully for the Cook County Board in 1986, and right afterward considered a bid for mayor in 1987 before ultimately deciding not to run.
Later, Catania ran for Cook County recorder in 1992, vying for the seat vacated by U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun, but lost to Jesse White.
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In 1993, Gov. Jim Edgar hired Catania to head the state Department of Children and Family Services’ efforts in recruiting and licensing foster care homes in Cook County. She also picked up a master’s degree in social work from the University of Chicago in 1997, and she later worked for the state Department of Human Services, focusing on sexual assault prevention.
After retiring from the state, Catania enjoyed following the news, reading mysteries, cooking and baking blueberry pies, tending to her cats, gardening and visiting with her daughters and grandchildren in Chicago and Los Angeles, Sara Catania said. She made Eagle River her permanent home in 2016.
“She loved the seasons at the cabin, especially the vibrant fall foliage of late September and early October,” Catania’s daughter said.
Catania’s husband of 58 years, Anthony, died in 2022. In addition to her daughter, Catania is survived by six other daughters, Susan Wigsmoen, Rachel Catania, Melissa Catania, Amy Catania, Annemarie Catania and Margaret Catania; and 13 grandchildren.
A private funeral Mass will take place in January.
Bob Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
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